Memory Speed

I have a GH2 camera and a 32GB SDHC-I (30GB/sec) memory card. When I am shooting brackets or rapid fire, three shots are very quick. Beyond that the camera slows down to about 1 shot every two seconds. I am assuming this is due to wait time for the buffer to clear. I shoot in RAW only.

Does anyone have any experience with SCXC (45MB/sec) memory? Does this faster memory have any significant effect or is the camera limited by its write speed?

I know upgrading from my old Trancend memory cards to my new 90mb/s PNY cards helped a ton on my GX7, but I'm not sure about the GH2. If the camera can't write fast enough, it wouldn't matter if you have an SSD attached, it simply won't help, but if the camera is limited by your SD card, it can make a huge difference. On my camera, I can shoot the highest setting for a few seconds, before it slows down to about 2 shots a second.

It would be worth it to try a friend's SD card, if you can find one. There may be others on this forum who can tell you exactly what to expect from the better cards, but trying it out for yourself is the better option. Also, the 30MB/s card you have may not really be able to maintain that speed either; that speed is a max speed, not what it can sustain.

I ran a test using the different memory cards that I have. I have some older 8GB SDHC cards as well as a 16GB SDXC 20GBPS and a 32GB SDXC 30GBPS card. My test was to simply hold the shutter down in rapid fire mode and see how many shots the camera took before slowing down. In every case it is seven shots. The faster memory was able to finish writing more quickly but only by a few seconds compared to the SDHC memory.

Overall, I'd have to say that faster memory does not improve the camera's ability to shoot more shots quickly, but faster memory will clear the buffer a bit faster. The difference is not great and certainly not worth purchasing more memory for given that I have more than I need now.

Overall, I'd have to say that faster memory does not improve the camera's ability to shoot more shots quickly, but faster memory will clear the buffer a bit faster. The difference is not great and certainly not worth purchasing more memory for given that I have more than I need now.

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